• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.35-41
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• 2008

The study of coking technology to upgrade oil sand bitumen which is considered as alternative fuel was performed by using thermogravity analyzer and delayed coking reactor(600ml). To analyzed and compared coking characteristics of oil sand bitumen, the reactivities of oil sand bitumen were measured in the TGA. At the temperature conditions of $400{\sim}550^{\circ}C$ and the temperature rising velocity of $50^{\circ}C/min$. the termination time of coking reaction and conversion efficiencies increased with an increase of bed temperature. However the increase rate decreased over $450^{\circ}C$. So the coking reaction with oil sand bitumen might be over $450^{\circ}C$. Also the termination time decreased with increasing the temperature rising velocity. But the content of coke increased with increasing temperature rising velocity. At the experiments in the delayed coker, the temperature condition at maximum oil yield was $475^{\circ}C$ and the fuel properties of oil from coking reaction was almost equal with conventional diesel. It was verified that the coking process might be useful process to upgrade the oil sand bitumem by using API and SIMDAS.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 2007

As conventional light oil resources deplete, it is becoming necessary to develop unconventional resources. To meet the demand for petrochemical industry, heavier sources such as heavy oil and bitumen are being utilized. Bitumens, a complex hydrocarbon made up of a long chain of molecules, are found in oil sand. It is estimated that 830 billion barrels of oil are located in the oil sand in Alberta, Canada. This paper will review briefly (1) the basic concept of oil sand, bitumen, and heavy oil, (2) methods how to extract oil from oil sand, (3) methods how to upgrade to synthetic crude oil, and (4) economic evaluation of technology.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2008

As conventional oil and gas reservoirs become depleted, interests for oil sands has rapidly increased in the last decade. Oil sands are mixture of bitumen, water, and host sediments of sand and clay. Most oil sand is unconsolidated sand that is held together by bitumen. Bitumen has hydrocarbon in situ viscosity of >10,000 centipoises (cP) at reservoir condition and has API gravity between $8-14^{\circ}$. The largest oil sand deposits are in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. The reverves are approximated at 1.7 trillion barrels of initial oil-in-place and 173 billion barrels of remaining established reserves. Alberta has a number of oil sands deposits which are grouped into three oil sand development areas - the Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River, with the largest current bitumen production from Athabasca. Principal oil sands deposits consist of the McMurray Fm and Wabiskaw Mbr in Athabasca area, the Gething and Bluesky formations in Peace River area, and relatively thin multi-reservoir deposits of McMurray, Clearwater, and Grand Rapid formations in Cold Lake area. The reservoir sediments were deposited in the foreland basin (Western Canada Sedimentary Basin) formed by collision between the Pacific and North America plates and the subsequent thrusting movements in the Mesozoic. The deposits are underlain by basement rocks of Paleozoic carbonates with highly variable topography. The oil sands deposits were formed during the Early Cretaceous transgression which occurred along the Cretaceous Interior Seaway in North America. The oil-sands-hosting McMurray and Wabiskaw deposits in the Athabasca area consist of the lower fluvial and the upper estuarine-offshore sediments, reflecting the broad and overall transgression. The deposits are characterized by facies heterogeneity of channelized reservoir sands and non-reservoir muds. Main reservoir bodies of the McMurray Formation are fluvial and estuarine channel-point bar complexes which are interbedded with fine-grained deposits formed in floodplain, tidal flat, and estuarine bay. The Wabiskaw deposits (basal member of the Clearwater Formation) commonly comprise sheet-shaped offshore muds and sands, but occasionally show deep-incision into the McMurray deposits, forming channelized reservoir sand bodies of oil sands. In Canada, bitumen of oil sands deposits is produced by surface mining or in-situ thermal recovery processes. Bitumen sands recovered by surface mining are changed into synthetic crude oil through extraction and upgrading processes. On the other hand, bitumen produced by in-situ thermal recovery is transported to refinery only through bitumen blending process. The in-situ thermal recovery technology is represented by Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage and Cyclic Steam Stimulation. These technologies are based on steam injection into bitumen sand reservoirs for increase in reservoir in-situ temperature and in bitumen mobility. In oil sands reservoirs, efficiency for steam propagation is controlled mainly by reservoir geology. Accordingly, understanding of geological factors and characteristics of oil sands reservoir deposits is prerequisite for well-designed development planning and effective bitumen production. As significant geological factors and characteristics in oil sands reservoir deposits, this study suggests (1) pay of bitumen sands and connectivity, (2) bitumen content and saturation, (3) geologic structure, (4) distribution of mud baffles and plugs, (5) thickness and lateral continuity of mud interbeds, (6) distribution of water-saturated sands, (7) distribution of gas-saturated sands, (8) direction of lateral accretion of point bar, (9) distribution of diagenetic layers and nodules, and (10) texture and fabric change within reservoir sand body.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.262-267
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• 2014

SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage) process is the most commonly used in-situ technology for the recovery of bitumen from oil sand. It was investigated that the effects of different additives on bitumen recovery rate from oil sand in SAGD process among many possible mechanisms studied throughout the study. Bitumen recovery from thin layer oil sand reservoirs was simulated by using an experimental SAGD apparatus with scale of 150:1. To improve the simulation accuracy of thin layer oil reservoir, we have attached geological model (GM). Oil sand was simulated by using a mixture of extra heavy oil and glass beads with a diameter of 1.5 mm. $CO_2$ was used as an additive and the evolution of steam chambers were closely monitored, and the effects of $CO_2$ as an additive was investigated. Two types of injection methods were tested; continuous ($cCO_2$-SAGD) and sequential interruption ($sCO_2$-SAGD) $CO_2$ injection. For the $sCO_2$-SAGD experiment, it was observed that the recovery rates and CSOR were efficiently improved control experiment from 60.2% to 69.3% and 7.1 to 6.0, respectively, whereas $cCO_2$-SAGD experiment decreased from 60.2% to 57.6% and 7.1 to 7.3.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.281-286
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• 2009

Bitumen extraction and sulfur removal from Athabasca oil sand were conducted using water in sub- and supercritical condition. Bitumen yield in micro reactor was investigated in the pressure range of 15~30 MPa, the temperature of 360 and $380^{\circ}C$ and water density $0.074{\sim}0.61g/cm^3$ for 0~120 min. Bitumen yield increased with reaction pressure irrespective of temperature and dramatically increased in especially supercritical region due to hydrogen formed from water gas shift reaction. Total amount of gas product decreased with reaction pressure but the portion of sulfur and hydrogen increased a little with increasing pressure to 25 and 30 MPa. It is seen that supercritical condition was favourable to the hydrogen formation and sulfur removal. Bitumen yield and sulfur removal from original oil sand reached a maximum 22% and 40% respectively in supercritical condition(the reaction time of 60 min at $380^{\circ}C$ and 25 or 30 MPa).

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.68-74
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• 2010

In this study, fluidized-bed pyrolysis has been conducted in order to recover the bitumen contained in the oil sand. Canada Alberta oil sand contains 11.9% of bitumen and the bitumen-derived heavy oil produced in fluidizedbed tends to be upgraded relative to the bitumen. The continuous operation has been performed using $N_2$ as a fluidization gas at 1 atm and $500^{\circ}C$ in a reactor of 170 cm height. The results showed 87.76% of bitumen conversion, where liquid products are 74.45% and gas products are 13.31%. $H_2$, $O_2$, CO, $CO_2$, $CH_4$, and NO and $C_1{\sim}C_4$ hydrocarbons in the gas products were analyzed by on-line gas analyzer and gas chromatography, respectively. The pyrolysis oil was analyzed by using proximate analysis, heavy metal analysis, SIMDIS, asphaltenes, and heating value. By SIMDIS analysis, naphtha was 11.50%, middle distillation was 44.83% and heavy oil was 43.66%. It was obvious that the pyrolysis oil was upgraded compared with bitumens.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.537-540
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• 2009

오일샌드는 아스팔트와 같은 중질유를 10% 이상 함유한 모래 또는 사암으로서, 겉으로 보기에는 시커먼 흙이나 모래처럼 보이나 내부에는 모래(점토)와 같은 광물질이 70~80%, 에너지원으로 활용이 가능한 중질유 성분인 bitumen이 10~18%, 물이 3~5% 정도 혼합되어 있다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 오일샌드 활용방안 개발을 위하여 오일샌드로부터 bitumen의 추출 및 증류 특성에 대한 시험을 진행하였으며, 가스화를 통한 합성가스 제조, 합성가스 중 분진제거 및 탈황, CO/$H_2$비 제어를 위한 합성가스 전환 등의 시험을 진행하였는데, pilot급 시스템을 이용한 합성가스 제조 시험 결과 중질잔사유를 5~7 kg/h 공급하는 조건에서 CO 40~50%, $H_2$ 20~30%, $CO_2$ 10~20% 조성의 합성가스 18~22 $Nm^3$/h를 제조하였다.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.113-115
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• 2014

Lab scale simulated steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process devices were used to investigate the effect of inorganic additives for the bitumen recovery from oil sand. An extra heavy oil similar with bitumen and 1.5 mm diameter of the glass bead instead of clay was mixed to simulate the oil sand. In addition, $FeO_X$ synthesized from the inorganic process was introduced as an inorganic additive for improving the recovery. Finally, the steam heat transfer rate of approximately 40% following the introduction of inorganic additives which also increased the recovery rate by about 30%.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.35-45
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• 2009

Reservoir Characterization (RC) using 3-D seismic attributes analysis can provide properties of the oil sand reservoirs, beyond seismic resolution. For example, distributions and temporal bed thicknesses of reservoirs could be characterized by Spectral Decomposition (SD) and additional seismic attributes such as wavelet classification. To extract physical properties of the reservoirs, we applied 3-D seismic attributes analysis to the oil sand reservoirs in McMurray formation, in BlackGold Oilsands Lease, Alberta Canada. Because of high viscosity of the bitumen, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology will be necessarily applied to produce the bitumen in a steam chamber generated by Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). To optimize the application of SAGD, it is critical to identify the distributions and thicknesses of the channel sand reservoirs and shale barriers in the promising areas. By 3-D seismic attributes analysis, we could understand the expected paleo-channel and characteristics of the reservoirs. However, further seismic analysis (e.g., elastic impedance inversion and AVO inversion) as well as geological interpretations are still required to improve the resolution and quality of RC.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.19-24
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• 2016

Oil sands are a mixture of sand, clay, and a high-viscosity petroleum called bitumen. Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is the most viable and environmentally safe recovery technology for extracting bitumen. It extracts the viscosity-lowered bitumen by high pressure, high temperature steam injected into the bitumen reservoir. The steam is produced at the Central Processing Facility (CPF). Typically, more than 90% of the energy consumed in producing bitumen are used to generate the steam. Fuels are employed in the process, which cause economic and environmental problems. This paper explores the retrofit of heat exchanger network to reduce the usage of hot and cold utilities. The hot and cold utilities are reduced respectively 6% and 37.3% which in turn resulted in 5.3% saving of total annual cost by improving the existing heat exchanger network of the CPF.